FARMINGDALE — In the pivotal second and third quarters, when the game was still very much competitive, the Mountain Valley High School girls basketball team simply had more get up and go than Hall-Dale.
“I think we got outmuscled and outhustled. Mountain Valley had a long stretch there where every 50-50 ball was theirs,” Hall-Dale coach Brandon Terrill said.
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The result was a key 50-39 Mountain Valley Conference win for the Falcons, who improved to 7-4. Hall-Dale is now 6-3.
“We’re a young team and we’re learning how to score points. We know we have to hold teams to around 40 to be competitive,” Mountain Valley coach Ryan Casey said.
Hall-Dale scored 12 points in the first 5 minutes, 15 seconds of the game, and raced out to an early 10-point lead. But the Bulldogs scored just 27 points the rest of the way.
Trailing 18-11 midway through the second quarter, the Falcons closed the first half with a 10-0 run to take a 21-18 lead into the half.
“We definitely started slow. We didn’t hit some open shots. We gave them some looks that they capitalized on,” Casey said. “We made some substitutions and brought a little energy off the bench. I think that was the turning point.”
Some of that energy came from guard Emily Billings, who came off the bench and hit a 3-pointer in the middle of Mountain Valley’s second quarter run. Forward Sydney Petrie scored eight of her 12 points in the first half for the Falcons.
Ashley Russell also had 12 points for Mountain Valley, while Liza White scored nine points and grabbed 12 rebounds, six offensive.
“Our strength is our post. We try our best to get the ball inside-out. We feel like we should control the boards. I thought that we could control the inside game,” Casey said.
Mountain Valley used its size advantage to control the board. The Falcons grabbed 14 offensive rebounds and capitalized on second chance opportunities to pull away in the third quarter. All over the court, the Falcons hustled after loose balls, while the Bulldogs went cold from the floor.
“They got all kinds of offensive rebounds. We weren’t physical enough. We had plenty of looks. We just couldn’t buy a bucket there for a long stretch,” Terrill said.
Hall-Dale made just one field goal in the second quarter, and three in the third as Mountain Valley pushed its lead to 36-25.
Nicole Pelletier scored 14 points to lead the Bulldogs.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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